The Ethics of Social Media: Why Content Moderation is a Moral Duty
This article defends platforms’ moral responsibility to moderate wrongful speech posted by users. Several duties together ground and shape this responsibility. First, platforms have duties to defend others from harm when they can do so at reasonable cost. Second, platforms have a moral dut...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Michigan Publishing Services
2024-11-01
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| Series: | Journal of Practical Ethics |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/jpe/article/id/6195/ |
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| _version_ | 1849405185074397184 |
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| author | Jeffrey Howard |
| author_facet | Jeffrey Howard |
| author_sort | Jeffrey Howard |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This article defends platforms’ moral responsibility to moderate wrongful speech posted by users. Several duties together ground and shape this responsibility. First, platforms have duties to defend others from harm when they can do so at reasonable cost. Second, platforms have a moral duty to avoid complicity with users’ wrongfully harmful or dangerous speech. I will argue that one can be complicit in wrongs committed by others by supplying them with a space in which they will foreseeably commit them. For platforms, proactive content moderation is required to avoid such complicity. Further, platforms have an especially stringent complicity-based duty not to amplify users’ wrongful speech, thereby increasing its harm or danger. Finally, platforms have a duty not to enable new wrongs by amplifying otherwise innocuous speech that becomes wrongfully harmful only through amplification. I close by considering an objection—that content moderation by platforms constitutes an objectionable form of private censorship—explaining how it can be answered. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-451997a699a94da98d7448e4e4e11f04 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2051-655X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-11-01 |
| publisher | Michigan Publishing Services |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Practical Ethics |
| spelling | doaj-art-451997a699a94da98d7448e4e4e11f042025-08-20T03:36:44ZengMichigan Publishing ServicesJournal of Practical Ethics2051-655X2024-11-0111210.3998/jpe.6195The Ethics of Social Media: Why Content Moderation is a Moral DutyJeffrey Howard0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6521-9228Department of Political Science, University College LondonThis article defends platforms’ moral responsibility to moderate wrongful speech posted by users. Several duties together ground and shape this responsibility. First, platforms have duties to defend others from harm when they can do so at reasonable cost. Second, platforms have a moral duty to avoid complicity with users’ wrongfully harmful or dangerous speech. I will argue that one can be complicit in wrongs committed by others by supplying them with a space in which they will foreseeably commit them. For platforms, proactive content moderation is required to avoid such complicity. Further, platforms have an especially stringent complicity-based duty not to amplify users’ wrongful speech, thereby increasing its harm or danger. Finally, platforms have a duty not to enable new wrongs by amplifying otherwise innocuous speech that becomes wrongfully harmful only through amplification. I close by considering an objection—that content moderation by platforms constitutes an objectionable form of private censorship—explaining how it can be answered.https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/jpe/article/id/6195/social mediacontent moderationfree speech |
| spellingShingle | Jeffrey Howard The Ethics of Social Media: Why Content Moderation is a Moral Duty Journal of Practical Ethics social media content moderation free speech |
| title | The Ethics of Social Media: Why Content Moderation is a Moral Duty |
| title_full | The Ethics of Social Media: Why Content Moderation is a Moral Duty |
| title_fullStr | The Ethics of Social Media: Why Content Moderation is a Moral Duty |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Ethics of Social Media: Why Content Moderation is a Moral Duty |
| title_short | The Ethics of Social Media: Why Content Moderation is a Moral Duty |
| title_sort | ethics of social media why content moderation is a moral duty |
| topic | social media content moderation free speech |
| url | https://journals.publishing.umich.edu/jpe/article/id/6195/ |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT jeffreyhoward theethicsofsocialmediawhycontentmoderationisamoralduty AT jeffreyhoward ethicsofsocialmediawhycontentmoderationisamoralduty |